Football defiant in face of virus crisis

THE A-League will scramble to finish its season as quickly as possible, while grassroots games will be restricted to “essential participants” as football bids to keep going in the face of the coronavirus crisis.

Gambling that the remaining few rounds and finals can be completed before players and coaches test positive for COVID-19, competition bosses hope to release a new fixture schedule by tomorrow that will have games played immediately and continue every three days where possible, all behind closed doors.

The W-League final will also be played this weekend, while A-League games will be switched to any suitable venue to expedite the schedule — with double-headers feasible too — in the hope the vast majority of league games could be completed within three to four weeks.

Those won’t include Wellington Phoenix and Melbourne Victory for the next fortnight, whose players must go into isolation for two weeks due to government travel restrictions and who won’t even be able to train in that period.

Wellington will move here as a group tomorrow and be based in Sydney for the rest of their campaign, though ALeague boss Greg O’Rourke admitted not every player may come due to domestic commitments.

FFA CEO James Johnson said for now the government medical advice was that games at national and local level could go ahead, subject to a strict set of criteria which FFA has put in place above and beyond government guidelines.

Most clubs will lose between $150,000-$250,000 per game in revenue.